Hikers discover man's body in Gorge

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Grannyhiker
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Hikers discover man's body in Gorge

Post by Grannyhiker » February 11th, 2009, 5:58 pm

http://www.katu.com/news/39447762.html

Evidently the deceased is far too young to be the missing Corbett man.

The article doesn't give much detail but says the body was 45 minutes up the trail. Even at my glacial hiking pace, I can get to Wahkeena Spring in 45 minutes. Could this be up the Devil's Rest trail where it is relatively close to the Multnomah Basin road, or am I overestimating most peoples' hiking speed?

Sounds like lots of nasty stuff going on in the Gorge this week.

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Waffle Stomper
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Re: Hikers discover man's body in Gorge

Post by Waffle Stomper » February 11th, 2009, 6:24 pm

More news only from Skamania county. A cross-country skiier was beaten and left for dead.

http://www.kgw.com/news-local/stories/k ... bfc5e.html
"When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the Universe." - John Muir

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chameleon
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Re: Hikers discover man's body in Gorge

Post by chameleon » February 11th, 2009, 8:30 pm

That is disturbing. I stopped at Multnomah falls this morning @11 or so, and a sheriff's car pulled up and the officers began talking to an upset looking elderly hiker who kept pointing up above the falls (I'm wondering if the body was somewhere on the Multnomah/Wahkeena loop?). I wondered what was going on. Judging by the seriousness on the hiker's face, it appeared to be something quite out of the ordinary.

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Grannyhiker
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Re: Hikers discover man's body in Gorge

Post by Grannyhiker » February 11th, 2009, 9:34 pm

Update: http://www.oregonlive.com/news/index.ss ... _foun.html

It appears that the body was near the intersection of the Larch Mountain and Wahkeena trails (about right for 45 minutes from Wahkeena Falls for a normal hiker, I believe--more like 1 to 1 1/4 hours for me). The body was clad in blue underwear and (per the previous article from KATU) was of a young man.


The clad in underwear bit immediately started me thinking about the possibility of hypothermia (it takes very little body temperature drop for the brain to start malfunctioning), but speculation is useless until the autopsy results are in.

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OneSpeed
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Re: Hikers discover man's body in Gorge

Post by OneSpeed » February 11th, 2009, 9:36 pm

Oregonian has an update: apparently he was wearing blue underwear and had no ID!?!? Sounds like maybe hypothermia-induced delirium?

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Grannyhiker
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Re: Hikers discover man's body in Gorge

Post by Grannyhiker » February 12th, 2009, 1:38 pm

Body identified: http://www.kgw.com/news-local/stories/k ... 898b1.html

As One Speed and I both suspected (posting almost simultaneously!) after reading about the underwear bit, the cause of death was hypothermia.

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Waffle Stomper
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Re: Hikers discover man's body in Gorge

Post by Waffle Stomper » February 12th, 2009, 4:20 pm

Good thinking grannyhiker and onespeed. In hindsight that makes sense.
"When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the Universe." - John Muir

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OneSpeed
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Re: Hikers discover man's body in Gorge

Post by OneSpeed » February 12th, 2009, 4:38 pm

Sounds like a troubled guy. It's a tragedy.

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